Volume One 4. Use of Natural and Physical Resources [D] 4.M.8 Designations Encourage requiring authorities (as defined by Section 166 of the RMA) to utilise designations as an effective means of identifying and protecting regionally significant infrastructure. Designations can then be explicitly included in the MEP. [C, R, D] 4.M.9 District and regional rules Rules will be used to enable activities associated with the maintenance, alteration, minor upgrading and replacement of regionally significant infrastructure. Standards will specify the extent of works involved with any of these activities. Rules will be used to control the proximity of land uses in river beds that could have adverse effects on regionally significant infrastructure. This includes development within the National Grid corridor. A buffer corridor for the National Grid transmission lines will be established through rules within which activities will be managed to reduce the risk of electrical hazard, the potential for reverse sensitivity effects and adverse effects on the structural integrity of the National Grid. The width of the corridor will vary depending on the activity, type of National Grid asset and the sensitivity of the network to the activity. This method gives effect to Policy 11 of the NPSET. In addition to the rules in the MEP, the Resource Management (National Environmental Standards for Electricity Transmission Activities) Regulations 2009 establishes various classes of activity for certain activities relating to existing transmission lines. [C, R, D] 4.M.10 Affected party status Where the grant of a resource consent application may adversely affect regionally significant infrastructure, the owners and operators of the infrastructure will be served notice of the application as an affected party. Transpower NZ is required to be served notice if a resource consent application may affect the National Grid under Regulation 10 of the Resource Management (Forms, Fees and Procedures) Regulations 2003. Issue 4C – The use and development of natural and physical resources in the Marlborough Sounds has the potential to detract from the character and intrinsic values of this unique and iconic environment. The unique Marlborough Sounds are located between Tasman Bay in the west, the often rough and wild Cook Strait to the north-east, and the exposed to open ocean conditions along its south- eastern flank. The drowning of river valleys in geological time has created 1,500 kilometres of indented coastline - a labyrinth of enclosed and relatively sheltered waters within Port Underwood, Queen Charlotte Sound, Pelorus Sound, Tennyson Inlet, Croiselles Harbour and around D’Urville Island. In contrast to the coastal waters, the Marlborough Sounds’ landform is rugged, sloping steeply away from the shoreline to prominent spurs and ridges on the skyline. Bays, coves, beaches, inlets, peninsulas, headlands and cliffs all mark the point where land and water meet. This unique position, combined with variation in geology, soils, topography, temperature, tidal range and currents, creates diversity in both the character and ecology of the Marlborough Sounds. The bush, streams and coastal waters provide habitat to indigenous plant and animal life. Native plants range from sub-tropical to sub-alpine. Some of the rarest animal and insect life in the world 4 – 7